development info - FAKENINA INTERVIEW PART 2

Carried out by Marko. Questions by Marko, Smartkin, NeoKesha and BetaM.
FakeNina (FN) was a Crash Twinsanity developer. Big thanks to them!

PART 1 / PART 2
  • We've found what appears to be kung fu moves, the Stomp Kick and the Flying Kick, as well as this script: COM_GENERIC_CREATURE_DEATH_KUNGFU. You told [us] that the Flying Kick was supposed to be used at the end of Crash's slide. Do you remember what the Stomp Kick was used for? Hopefully the gif can refresh your memory.
FakeNina (FN): It was an attack, to be used on certain enemies that could defend against Crash's spin. The game design doc says 'Designed to inflict multiple hits on enemies in one attack.'
FN: It was probably cut because it was causing bugs in the Rusty Walrus chase! That was often the reason for things being removed.
  • An unused Uka Uka boss attack was mentioned in a previous message by [us], but you didn't say anything about it in your reply. Did you choose not to reveal anything on purpose, or did you accidentally skip over it? If the latter is the case, could you tell us something about it now? Also, there is early footage of the Uka Fight being fought outdoors. Is there a specific reason it was moved indoors?
FN: I think I just missed the question last time. :) It was just an attack that didn't prove to be challenging enough to play against in the boss fight. The designer, John McCann, must have decided to take it out. The battle was moved indoors because we were hitting frame rate problems/slowdown when rendering the bossfight outdoors.
  • On the first beach, where Crash spawns in the beginning of the game, there are wumpa trees that drop wumpa which Crash can eat. We found a COM_WUMPA_TREE_EATEN script. When activated ingame, it causes the wumpa tree to slowly sink into the ground. What is this about? What kind of monster used to lurk on the beach that could eat entire trees? Was it some sort of a joke that Crash would eat all of the wumpa, still remain hungry and then eat the tree itself?
FN: The greedy worms at one time had a complex behavior where they would eat the wumpa trees. Crash could roll a seed into a hole and a wumpa tree would grow. Then the worms would come and eat them. I'd forgotten about that!
  • Unused text tips in the game mention these three vehicles: Hoverboard, hover scooter, and the UFO. Was the hover scooter just a different name for the hoverboard? Were there any other vehicles planned? Is there anything you can tell us about the UFO level?
FN: I think that was all of the vehicles. The hover scooter and hoverboard were the same thing, but there was an idea that Crash could ride the hoverboard, but would use it incorrectly, and ride it backwards.
In general the rule was:
-Cortex uses technology and vehicles
-Crash uses the environment, or other characters as vehicles.
The UFO level had Cortex collecting those Gravitron Spheres from the Twins' Lair/core using a tractor beam.
  • There is a different nitro detonator at the end of Cavern Catastrophe that only ever appears there. However, we also found a breakable nitro detonator that looks like the Cavern Catastrophe detonator, but when you spin it it will detonate the nitro and then break without hurting Crash (regular nitro detonators and the one in Cavern Catastrophe will not break, they become inactive after you spin them). Do you remember anything about this? Our theory is that it was supposed to be used in some gem puzzle.
FN: I think that's the kind of detonator that's used in Wrath of Cortex? It was probably a remnant from an early version of the design. There was one crate that never was implemented that I wish now we'd had. The Nitro were made to kill Crash with one hit, to slow him down during the loading sections of the game (tunnels between levels). Unfortunately it meant the Nitro become one-hit kills all the way through the game. The Lead Artist suggested a new 'death' crate (black with skull and crossbones) that could be used to slow down Crash in the loading areas that could kill him with one hit. I think that would have been a really good solution, in hindsight.
  • We found the model of this weapon ingame. Unlike other things we found, this only has the model and texture, there is no game code at all about it, so we have no idea what it's even called and what its purpose is/was. We put it in place of the ant lightsaber and it seems to fit well. Was this a removed weapon for ants or something else entirely?
FN: Oh yeah, that looks like it fits well! I imagine it's probably an unused ant weapon, like you say.
  • We found an unused Tikimon attack, a fireball attack, which shoots a TNT when activated ingame. Why was this removed? Since it's pretty unfinished, and shoots a TNT instead of an actual fireball, we all assumed it was cut early on.
FN:I think it was probably the designer trying out some attacks, and he chose not to use it.
  • We also found an unused Piranha Plant attack, a spitball, can you tell us why this is unused in the game? It doesn't seem to be unfinished, and could have been a fun addition to the Piranha Plant.
FN: Oh! I'd forgotten about that. It was probably taken out for difficulty reasons at that early stage, but it would have been cool for a later level. BTW these things you're asking about were all by the same designer!
  • You mentioned Crash was supposed to wrestle monkeys. We found these two animations for when he lost and when he won the brawl, respectively. The losing animation seems to be just a concept, but it looks like Crash falling down on the ground and slamming his fists and feed into the ground, is that correct? The winning animation seems to be Crash putting his foot on the passed out monkey and raising his hands into the air victoriously, or maybe picking up a trophy? We would love some more info about these!
FN: He's not raising his arms in victory! I'm enclosing the design sketch for it, so you can see what's going on :)
  • In the Twinsanity E3 demo, cutscenes were skippable. All over the final game we found scripts that indicate cutscenes were intended to be skippable in the final game as well. Why did you decide on not making them skippable after all?
FN: Skipping the cutscenes was causing a lot of bugs in the game (things not initializing properly after skipping). The Lead Programmer wrote a cool 'Fast Forward' system to get through the cutscenes quickly as a solution, but unfortunately it also caused bugs. We tried!
  • In your last response you mentioned a level called Cortex Carnage. What is this? We have never heard of it until you mentioned it. Are there any other cut levels like that that you think would be worth mentioning?
FN: I'm not sure what Cortex Carnage was - I copied the name of the game design document when I was looking for an answer to the question. It could have been another shooting level?
There were so many ideas for levels, I'm not sure there are any that you don't know about. It's hard to remember, because there were also all the levels from 'Crash Evolution' that were cut. I'll have to make a list sometime, and see if there's anything 'new' that's not been mentioned before.
  • Were you planning on having any more playable combinations between Crash and Cortex, in addition to Humiliskate, Rollerbrawl etc?
FN: I think we were able to get them all in, as it was really the focus of the design. The only thing we didn't get to do with them was the variation on 'Doc-A-Mock' using Evil Crash and Good Doctor Cortex, where the aim was to turn good Dr. Cortex evil by hurting him as much as possible. The mechanic was called 'Mock-A-Doc' (I just noticed!), and the level was 'Rehab Lab', which you know about, I'm sure!
  • We found this video. Is it related to Twinsanity, or some Twinsanity sequel? At 0:20 a Twinsanity-like Crash can be seen doing various animations
FN: That's strange! That's definitely the Twinsanity Crash. I wonder if this animator interviewed to join the Twinsanity team, and we gave him an animation test. That's the likeliest explanation.
  • Thanks again for everything!
FN: You're welcome! Thanks for your patience!! :)